Tuesday, September 18, 2012

From This Evening's Reading

It's taking me some time to get through C.S. Lewis's "Mere Christianity" - mainly because I have little time and it takes time to digest all that is being said. I love how Lewis breaks down basic Christian doctrine and leaves little room for question. Either you believe it or you don't.

A few quotes from this evening's reading:

"People often ask when the next step in evolution - the step to something beyond man - will happen. But on the Christian view, it has happened already. In Christ a new kind of man appeared: and the new kind of life which began in Him is to be put into us."

"Ninety-nine per cent of the things you believe are believed on authority...The ordinary man believes in the Solar System, atoms, evolution, and the circulation of the blood on authority - because the scientists say so. Every historical statement in the world is believed on authority...None of us could prove them by pure logic as you prove a thing in mathematics. We believe them simply because people who did see them have left writings that tell us about them: in fact, on authority. A man who jibbed at authority in other things as as some people do in religion would have to be content to know nothing all his life."
On the question, "what about those unknown peoples in the jungles (the "outside") who've never had the opportunity to hear the gospel?" -
"...if you are worried about the people on the outside, the most unreasonable thing you can do is to remain outside yourself. Christians are Christ's body, the organism through which He works. Every addition to that body enables Him to do more. If you want to help those outside you must add your own little cell to the body of Christ who alone can help them."

On Christ's return:
"Christians think He is going to land in force; we do not know when. But we can guess why He is delaying. He wants to give us the chance of joining His side freely...God will invade...When that happens it is the end of the world. When the author walks on to the stage the play is over. God is going to invade, all right: but what is the good of saying you are on His side then...It will be too late then to choose your side...That will not be the time for choosing: it will be the time when we discover which side we really have chosen, whether we realised it before or not. Now, today, this moment, is our chance to choose the right side. God is holding back to give us that chance. It will not last for ever. We must take it or leave it."